Most people do not associate emotions with reason; in fact, they see them as diametrically opposed. Right now, with all of the political change going on (although i suspect it’s not the kind of change Obama envisioned), there is a lot of discussion about leadership. A sub-issue has been the place of emotion in leadership, and i’d like to post about that topic today.
Human beings are – despite what anyone believes about it – triune beings with three distinct components that are inextricably linked: spiritual, emotional, and physical. The physical includes the brain (mind) but also is very affected by the emotional. The emotional is based in the soul or the animating force that we often refer to ambiguously as “Life.” The spiritual derives from our spirit and is, by its very nature, eternal and not bound by this world.
Now, most people don’t understand those distinctions with any acuity, nor do they have any sense of how they interact with one another. Eastern people tend to act and react primarily out of their soul, while Western people tend to act and react primarily out of their physicality (especially their mind-oriented (mental) intellect). Very, very few people ever convert to existing primarily out of their spirits, for that is a long, arduous, and sacrificial journey that requires conversion by a force greater than themselves – and that kind of submission is not generally appealing to human beings when either of the other postures can often satiate the innate longings for "feeling right(eous)" with the opiate of religion.
Anyway, despite people’s lack of understanding, they get – to a great degree and mostly intuitively – the fact that emotions are part of every person. Whether or not You wish Your company’s CEO or Your parent or child or Your religious leader or Your local/state/federal politician or Your whatever would act “objectively” (and, by the way, there isn’t such a thing) and without emotion is not the question, for that is impossible. There is no Spock here – that’s why he’s a made up character in a bad TV series.
The best You may hope for with any semblance of potentiality is for someone to weigh their emotions in their decision-making appropriately when in relativity to their spirits and their minds/physicality. Trust me, You don’t want a ruthless, unjust machine making decisions about anything. People tend to think (because they like to imagine a Utopian option where there is none, and this – among other things – is the problem with liberalism) that a “blind” justice system is a fair justice system, and it may indeed be fair. However, it isn’t a just system. There’s a big difference between fair and just, and You should always be on the side of justice.
You’ve probably heard the old saying, “If God ever asks You whether You want justice or mercy, You’d better ask for the mercy. Uh, exactly.
So, don’t get caught up (in the coming days, months, years, or political cycles) in the rhetoric about approaching things from an “across the board” mentality or a flat tax/fair tax or any of that other garbage. Emotions are good, when ruled by the spirit. Emotions are bad when they are exalted over the spirit. The same goes for intellect as it relates to the spirit. You should hope for people in authority to have a heart and a brain and use both accordingly. You should hope they use neither exclusively. You should hope they use their spirit more than either….
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